Meet Gary Burrill: The clergyman at the helm of Nova Scotia’s New Democrats

HALIFAX – Name: Gary Burrill

Party: New Democratic Party

Age: 61

Hometown: Woodstock, N.B. (with family roots in Yarmouth, N.S.)

Job before politics: The social justice advocate and graduate of Queen’s and Harvard was ordained as a United Church minister in 1992.

Leadership history: Elected leader in 2016 without a seat; he was an NDP backbencher for Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley from 2009 to 2013.

Notable moment: Beat out two sitting MLAs in the leadership race: Perceived frontrunner MLA Dave Wilson, a former cabinet minister, as well as MLA Lenore Zann.

Spotted in his office: A photo of J.B. McLachlan, a Cape Breton coalminer, union leader and labour advocate, and a photo of the home of Joseph Howe, provincial politician, newspaperman and public servant.

Quote: “We are in a new moment. The best way forward is investing in the real lives of real people.”

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version referred to J.B. McLachlan as Jamie McLachlan.